You have to watch this film to really understand to what lengths someone, Christian Bale actually, can go to get into a role. Bale lost over 60 pounds for this film, consuming a mere 260 calories a day for 4 months preparing for this film. I cannot fathom a more committed performance for a film.

And it shows. Bale is brilliant, perhaps a bit too much, as the insomniac machinist Trevor Reznik. Without sleep he is lost. He is dangerous to others and to himself. And then there is Ivan - the new office worker that is slowly ruining his life.

A complex, psychological tale, The Machinist draws heavily from but never imitates Dostoyevsky's The Double. It takes the central idea from The Double and gives it a concrete Raison d'être, so to speak.

The film, while slow and meandering, is still utterly gripping. If for nothing else than just to observe Christian Bale start out as this lost, pitiful character and descend into a further emaciated Doppelgänger of his original self. It is an intensely satisfying, if frightening at times, film experience. It is method acting at its extreme. And Christian Bale is just brilliant. (What a loss that he won't play Jobs.)

The Machinist is also one of those rare good films that even end well. When Trevor, basically at the end of the road, says peacefully, "All I want to do is sleep", we know exactly what he means and why and we are all in with him!